Dax’s own story voice in the end may not be too remarkable, but with an assist from readers, it can at least sound much more...
This audio–Mad Libs app featuring a shape-shifting alien on a visit to Earth is gimmicky but well-executed enough to overcome a scattershot story.
Before readers are introduced to an orange space creature named Dax, a menu of 10 items is presented. They must perform such feats as howling like a wolf, growling like a tiger and saying, “Thank you.” The audio is then baked into the fairly haphazard story of Dax, an alien shaped like a mushroom and colored with big, square pixels. Dax, who can imitate billions of voices, rockets to Earth, lands in the ocean and begins making as many friends as possible. He uses the audio recordings to communicate with Earth-dwelling animals as his body shifts shape. The audio is as low-key or exciting as readers care to make it, and the trick adds a lively layer to what’s otherwise a competent but ho-hum story. Dax realizes he has no real voice of his own (should he blame the app?), then goes on a journey of self-discovery to meet more animals and to find his own identity. The alien is cheerful enough, and the app’s soothing colors, smooth art and animation complement the audio well. It’s not narrative magic, but it’s a pleasant trip.
Dax’s own story voice in the end may not be too remarkable, but with an assist from readers, it can at least sound much more exciting. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Opposite, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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